NH Business Finance Authority / NH Innovation Research Center

Supports New Hampshire companies by connecting business finance tools with university-led innovation research.

The New Hampshire Business Finance Authority is a quasi-public state finance authority established in 1992 to expand credit availability for New Hampshire businesses. It supports growth through loans, guarantees, credit enhancement, and tax-exempt bond financing, and its lifetime footprint includes more than 5,250 businesses supported, $400 million in guaranteed loans, and more than $5 billion in bonds issued.

Its active routes include the Capital Access Program, which can enroll up to $500,000 per borrower with a maximum guarantee of 100 percent on term loans and lines of credit, and BFA loan guarantees, which can reach 90 percent on term loans and 75 percent on lines of credit up to $2 million. The authority also offers early-stage capital and a business energy loan, making it a capital-stack provider for companies that need bank financing, collateral support, or infrastructure money rather than a grant.

The NH Innovation Research Center side of the slug is historical and no longer awards money; UNHInnovation says those state R&D matching grants were discontinued in 2021 after supporting more than $8 million in state funds since 1991. The public-facing use case today is therefore financing and partnership support, with UNHInnovation facilitating research collaboration and federal SBIR/STTR access rather than issuing its own awards.